First and foremost, if you can possibly avoid having your hands on the money, do ! The best is to have the money directly roll over to the IRA. If you can't make a decision, my suggestion would be throw it in a Vanguard Money Market for the moment. You can always move it to the index fund or see up a self-directed IRA with their brokerage. But if the money goes to you before it goes to Vanguard, they have to withhold the taxes, even though you may not end up owing them so don't touch the money ;)

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